The Best of 2015: My 10 Most Popular Articles of the Year

What a year! 2015 is winding down and I’ve become reflective (as you can tell from my recent Annual Review Post).

Part of my reflection has been about the writing that I’ve shared each week with you, my wonderful subscribers. I had a lot of different goals for 2015, but near the top of the list was to consistently write and to share my writing with you.

I read somewhere that in order to write well, you have to write a lot. I don’t know if I’ve written well, but I sure wrote a lot in 2015!

The Most Popular Articles of 2015

This one went viral after appearing on RockStartFinance.com and then on the personal finance column of Rob Carrick for Toronto’s Globe and Mail. The article tells a story of two college grads who take different paths with their houses and cars. The difference in their finances after these simple choices is dramatic. Share this with all of your 20-something kids or grand-kids (or with others who never learned this in their 20’s!)

This post was inspired by Pete over at MrMoneyMustache.com. There is a HUGE long-term cost to recurring weekly and monthly expenses. The rules of 752 and 173 are short-cuts to estimate how much you’ll earn long-run by cutting out certain recurring expenses from your life.

This is one of my personal favorites. I hoped this would be both an inspiration and a how-to guide for you to take your own mini-retirements throughout life. Working, saving, and deferring gratification is great. But life is also meant to be lived now!

This is the call to action to stop selling out for a job and start living. It represents what coachcarson.com is really all about. We don’t have to work until we die (or let our souls die while we work). We can learn to win with money and live a better life – now and in the future.

I share and link to this article more than any other. Retiring early is simple, but it’s not easy. The simple equation is shared in this article. The tough question is how hardcore are you willing to be in order to quickly free yourself from a need to work. This was another inspiration from MMM.

Frugality is a bad word in some circles. For me, it’s more a philosophy about a simple and happy life and less a prescription for budgeting a certain amount of money each month. But frugality has truly bought me freedom both in the short-run and in the long-run.

I got started in real estate with very little cash. So I have a heart for others who want to do the same. It won’t be easy. There are no secret shortcuts. But this article will outlines several paths to get started in real estate on a shoestring budget.

This is a detailed, step-by-step guide to a year-end routine that modeled after exceptional people. If you want to increase the odds that next year will be your productive, most satisfying year ever, read and apply this routine.

There is a smart (and a dumb) way to use borrow money and leverage real estate. The best investor of all-time, Warren Buffet has safely used leverage to build a fortune. In this article I outline my favorite safe-leverage strategies.

Honorable Mentions (Also Worth Reading)

A few more of my favorites were close but did not make the top-10 cut. They may also be worth your time for a read or re-read:

Top Resources

I have 85 recommended tools for you to become better as a real estate investor. My first priority is helping you, my reader, to learn and improve. These tools and resources helped me and I'm hopeful they will help you too.

Affiliate Disclosure

I recommend books, tools, and other resources from time to time using links within my articles. In some cases these links are affiliate links. This means that if you click through and purchase, my company will receive a commission on the sale. These commissions help pay the bills around here (and avoid the need for spammy ads). But keep in mind that I only recommend a product or service if I’ve used it and personally believe in it. And I’ll recommend something that’s good whether it has an affiliate link or not. My first priority is helping you, my reader, to learn and improve.